Tell Me Again Mama
by Octoberjean
Summary: This story takes place a few years after Toya and Aya’s daughter is born. Toya has died and Aya is dealing with his death while trying to help her daughter deal with it as well. Please R&R Oh and it follows the manga more than the anime... kind of.


Ok so this is totally my first FanFic! I have been stuck in bed for the last two days with a twisted ankle with nothing better to do than read FanFic all day so that is what I have been doing (imagine that!) So after reading all of those I decided that I should write a story myself. Now I will tell you right from the start, I am soooooo not a writer! I am more of what my family likes to call a grammar nazi so if this seems a little strange or difficult to read that is why… please be nice! Enjoy!

BTW: If you can imagine this, I don't own these characters or the story it was based on or anything else having to do with the original! I know it is hard to believe but it is true! The only character that I can take even partial credit for is Shuro, Yuu Watase came up with the name but I based the personality on my own daughter, I guess you can say Watase San and I have joint custody of this character. However this is my own original idea so please don't "borrow" it because if you do I will have to send my very large very scary looking older brother after you…

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**Tell Me Again Mama**

I sighed looking over at the clock on the table, 8:48 PM! Damn! 'I don't think she is ever going to go to sleep!' I think to myself. It has been a long day and I really just want to go to bed myself!

"Bug? You really need to get back in bed now!"

I know she is not listening to me… she never does, people tell me that its just because she is three-years-old and that its "normal" but I know better, I know it's the pain.

I stand up and walk across the room, my sock clad feet making little sound as I walk up behind her

"Bug? Did you hear me? Its time to go back to bed!"

She really is ignoring me as if I wasn't even there! I look at her more closely trying to figure out what is going on in that little head of hers but I just can't seem to figure it out. I sigh and sit next to her, now we are both looking at the multitude of pictures strewn across the floor. So many pictures! We where sure to take them at every opportunity because we knew the day would come… I cut myself off 'No! Aya, don't do this to yourself again!!' I am screaming at myself in my head. I reach my hand up and hold onto the cross necklace that hangs so limply from my neck and a single tear rolls down my cheek. 'I have to stop thinking like this! You have to take care of Shuro… Oh just the thought of my daughters name made me remember so many things from the past five years. It wasn't all-bad, these past five years but it definitely wasn't all-good! So many deaths, so many hardships, so much sadness. All of that pain and hardship had culminated just two weeks ago when Toya finally faded away.

Two more tears rolled down my face and I swiped at them with the back of my hand. 'I have to be strong for her!!' It seems like I am constantly telling myself that lately, everyday, every hour, every minute, every thought 'I have to be strong!!'

I look over at my once rambunctious and energetic daughter; she has changed so much in such a short amount of time. Right after she was born, Toya and I had a hard time picking out a name for her, we knew we wanted to name her after one of the women who had giver there lives for us but we didn't know which one. We finally settled on Shuro instead of Chidori, come to think of it WE didn't really chose, it was more Yuhi who chose for us. He really was in love with Chidori and it would have broken his heart to hear her name all the time….

My thoughts are interrupted so quickly and violently that I am completely shaken when Shuro puts her head in my lap, my thoughts had taken me so far away that I hadn't even noticed that she had moved.

I run my fingers through her hair while I talk to her

"Bug, please talk to me! I know that you are sad, I know that it hurts, but you HAVE to talk to me!!"

As usual she just sits there looking off into space, nothing seems to faze her, she doesn't talk to me, she doesn't eat, she just sits there doing nothing but looking at those pictures every day since it happened.

I lean over and pick a few of the pictures up… they are all of him, every last one of them. 'What do I do? How can I help her if she won't talk to me?' I am screaming at myself again, I sigh and continue to play with her long black hair as we look through the pictures. I occasionally comment about what we where doing when the picture was taken;

"Look Bug, that was the day you found the sea shell with daddy."

"That one is when we went to see Uncle Yuhi"

"Oh Bug…" she is looking at me, her mouth is open just the slightest bit as if she is going to ask me something.

"What is it Bug?"

I look at her expecting some kind of response, just like I have done every other time. I am surprised when I am reworded with a response this time

"Mama… why do you call me Bug?"

I smile at this, 'She knows why I call her bug!' but I am not about to deny her the story that she obviously wants to hear yet again, she is talking and that is all that matters! I pull her more securely into my lap and wrap my arms around her.

"Well, when you were a little baby you hated to sleep alone. Every night daddy and I would try to put you in your crib and you would cry so insistently that daddy just HAD to get you out so that you could sleep with us. I would try to tell him that you would fall asleep eventually and that it wouldn't hurt you to cry a little, but daddy would always say that you were his little cuddle bug and that you needed to be with us."

I can see that she is enjoying the story and it is so very obvious that she loves the fact that Toya was her hero against the big bad mom. She turns to me and gives me the briefest of smiles, something that I had been waiting and hoping to see for to long now. I decide to continue my story and maybe even shed my "Big Bad Mom" identity a little.

"Well, while your daddy thought that you where a cuddle bug I had to disagree with him, you were just a little baby and you didn't do much cuddling, you mostly kick and squirmed"

I tickle her to show her just how squirmy she can be.

"BUT when you where sleeping peacefully it was a very nice feeling for daddy and I, we had our family together and it was nice. I would constantly tell your daddy that you were sleeping soundly and 'snug as a bug in a rug'. Well your daddy thought that was so funny! Since both of our descriptions of the way you slept had bug in them… we just shortened them both to bug."

I smiled down at her expecting her to have started to doze off at least a little by now, I was wrong as always. She was just as alert and awake as could be. I sighed again 'What am I going to do with her?' I look over at the clock and see that it is only 9:15 PM, it had really felt like longer than that!

I finally decide that no matter what she says she absolutely MUST go to bed now. I move her off of my lap and stand up. I look down at where she wound up, once again surrounded by pictures.

"It really is time for bed"

I say this as I pick her up and start walking toward the sliding door that leads to her room. She has wrapped her arms around my neck in the typical small child fashion and I can feel a peace of paper touching my neck. 'She must have brought one of the pictures with her' I thought to myself… 'I wonder which one it is?' My thoughts are interrupted by a whisper.

"Mama?"

"What is it Bug?"

"Tell me again mama"

Tears start to well up in my eyes, I know what she wants me to tell her, it is the same thing every night! She wants to know how her father and I met that day so many years ago on the beach… and she wants to know how her father died just two weeks ago on that same beach.

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So, what do you think? I know it is a little short… and slow but like I said this is my first one! If there is a good enough response in the reviews I will make another chapter so please let me know what you think!


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